Red Moon At Dawn unfolds in Mauritius during World War II, where food shortages, rising prices and a workers' strike expose the brutal reach of colonial power. Told through the contrasting voices of two young women, the novel traces how they come to understand themselves and their island at a moment of upheaval. Valerie, a rebellious teenage activist, poet and would-be playwright, is drawn into the growing unrest on the sugar estate, while the younger, sheltered Anarka-- raised by a British-respecting sirdar but inspired by her radical, lesbian aunt-- witnesses the tensions of colonial life from within. As the strike intensifies, both girls confront family secrets, social hierarchies, racial divisions and the complexities of their ancestral Indian heritage, with its intertwined legacies of patriarchy and resistance. Poetic and immersive, the novel captures a society shaped by English, Mauritian French Creole and Indian languages, and the resilience of those living under empire.