Istanbul, Eventually

Defne Yildiz writes a widely-read architecture blog advocating for Istanbul's historic building stock. Emre Kaya runs a renovation contracting firm that, in Defne's view, strikes the wrong balance between preservation and modernisation. They've been arguing in blog comments for two years under pseudonyms.

When Emre's firm takes on the renovation of Defne's Cihangir apartment building, the pseudonyms last approximately three days before someone connects the dots.

*Istanbul, Eventually* is literary romance about preservation, professional identity, and the slow work of learning what someone actually thinks when you've spent two years arguing with what you assumed they thought. It is a love story built on the particular intimacy of people who disagree about things that matter - about what buildings are for, what history is worth preserving, what a city owes its past.