A wildly comic novel about families, mothers and madness

Jerry Pinto

Em and the Big Hoom

In a tiny flat in Bombay, Imelda Mendes – Em to her family – is by turns flamboyant, maniacally affectionate and cruelly candid. Her husband Augustine (the 'Big Hoom') and two children must endure her 'microweathers': where she swings from searing joy to brooding malevolence.

Most of the time, Em smokes endless beedies and sings her way through life. She is the sun around which everyone else orbits. But as enchanting and high-spirited as she can be, when Em’s bipolar disorder seizes her, she becomes monstrous, sometimes with calamitous consequences for herself and others.

And so here is the story of how this family of four came to be. Of how Imelda was courted by Augustine – 'Hello, Buttercup' – and of how with the passage of time and the arrival of her children she slowly turned into Em, loving and loathing a world terrified of her extravagant excesses . . .

Touching, charming and funny and beautifully written, Jerry Pinto’s Em and the Big Hoom will stay with readers long after the last page.

About the author: Jerry Pinto lives in Mumbai. He has been a mathematics tutor, school librarian, journalist and columnist. He is now associated with MelJol, an NGO that works in the sphere of human rights. His published works include a book of poems, Asylum, and Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb, which won the National Award for Best Book on Cinema in 2007. Em and the Big Hoom is his first novel.

RRP $30.00 | Viking