About the Book: Em and the Big Hoom Winner of The Hindu Literary Prize 2012 In a one-bedroom-hall-kitchen in Mahim, Bombay, Imelda Mendes-Em to her children-holds her family in thrall with her flamboyance, her compelling imagination, her unspoken love, her sometimes cruel candour. Through this, her husband, to whom she was once buttercup, her son and daughter learn to cope with her mania and her frequent wish to die. A searing, and at times darkly funny, study of mental illness, Jerry Pintos first novel is also a deeply moving story about love and family relationships. About the Author: Jerry Pinto Jerry Pinto has been a mathematics tutor, school librarian, journalist and columnist and is now associated with MelJol, an NGO that works in the sphere of child rights. His published work includes the book of poems, Asylum, and Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb, which won the National Award for the Best Book on Cinema, 2007. He has also edited an anthology of writings on Goa, Reflected in Water, and co-edited (with Naresh Fernandes) a similar anthology on his native city, Bombay, Meri Jaan. Reviews: A marvellous debut, sensitive, livened by crystal-cut prose and Pintos trademark mordant humour. This is the best Indian novel in years.- Prayaag Akbar, The Sunday Guardian Em and the Big Hoom is a beautiful book, a childs-eye view of madness and sorrow, full of love, pain, and, unaccountably, much wild comedy. One of the very best books to come out of India in a long, long time.-Salman Rushdie