This paper explores the Tunisian Arabic novel genre in light of the uprisings of 2010 and 2011. By reading comparatively two texts which were written on the eve of this political turning point, Ḥusayn al-Wād´s Saʿādatuhu sayyid al-wazīr (His Excellency the Minister) (2011) and Āmna al-Rumaylī al-Wislātī´s al-Bāqī (The Remnants) (2013), it engages with a new trend in the writing of modern Arabic novels. The Tunisian novelist Kamāl al-Riyāḥī called it “the political novel”, “al-riwāya al-siyāsiyya”. I argue that while grounded in previous trends of the Tunisian novel inspired by authors such as ʿAlī al-Duʿājī (1909-1949), Maḥmūd al-Masʿadī (1911-2004), and Bashīr Khrayyif (1917-1983), al-Wād and al-Rumaylī al-Wislātī interpret satire anew. Saʿādatuhu sayyid al-wazīr is a critical allegory of corruption and neo-colonial endeavours set in the liberalisation of the economy during the 1970s and 1980s. In search of femininities and masculinities beyond the cliché, al-Bāqī adds the element of tragedy and exaggeration by revisiting the student protests of the 1970s. Despite speaking to a similar historical period, both authors focus on different social groups. While al-Wād follows the trajectory of a teacher who is appointed as minister in his cousin´s government, al-Rumaylī al-Wislātī stages three former students who look back at their lost hopes and dreams. Their protagonists struggle with the expectations of colleagues and families, as well as of themselves. Both texts narrate the trope of failure, albeit from different points of view. Taking these two novels as point of departure, the paper allows for insights into developments of the novel genre in Tunisia and North Africa, as well as in the wider Arab-speaking context. How do these texts differ from previous Tunisian novels? Are they truly more “political” than other trends in modern Arabic prose – and if yes, how so? Which tensions arise from writing these novels on the verge of 2011, while revisiting the regime of Habib Bourguiba (1956-1987)? The proposed paper explores these questions in conversation with literary theories of the Tunisian and Arabic novel.