At first glance, postcolonialism and romance seem worlds apart: the former associated with political critique and activism, the latter with idealisation and escapism. In discussing selected novels of Amitav Ghosh and Kamila Shamsie, this study unsettles this assumption. Through reading both authors' texts against the backdrop of the 19th- and early 20th-century historical and imperial romance, it shows how contemporary fiction employs romance conventions to critically engage with history. Far from being apolitical, romance in the novels of Ghosh and Shamsie becomes a tool for rethinking modernity and for envisioning alternative futures disentangled from the colonial past.