Fiona Farrell’s most recent novel, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, is often referred to as ‘a political novel’. Twin to her highly regarded nonfiction work, The Villa at the Edge of the Empire, the books form a wide-ranging analysis of the response to the Christchurch earthquakes. In this lecture, Farrell considers in general terms the ‘political novel’. What makes a work of fiction ‘political’? Where does imagination stop and journalism begin? What are the special challenges faced by writers creating fiction with a contemporary political element?