Em and the Big Hoom
  • Published: 28 January 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241966518
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $25.00

Em and the Big Hoom

Formats & editions
EBook
5 Jun 2014
Paperback
28 Jan 2015
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A wildly comic novel about families, mothers and madness

Meet Imelda and Augustine, or - as our young narrator calls his unusual parents - Em and the Big Hoom. Most of the time, Em smokes endless beedis 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.

Touching, charming and funny and beautifully written, Jerry Pinto's Em and the Big Hoom will stay with readers long after the last page.
  • Published: 28 January 2015
  • ISBN: 9780241966518
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $25.00
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About the author

Jerry Pinto

Jerry Pinto lives and works 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 child 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 the Best Book on Cinema in 2007. Em and The Big Hoom is his first novel.

Praise for Em and the Big Hoom

A rare, brilliant book, one that is wonderfully different from any other that I have read coming out of India

Kiran Desai

I can't remember the last time I wanted to read a book so much . . . Genius

Guardian

Powerful . . . flashes of telling detail

Sunday Times

A profoundly moving book: I cannot remember when I last read something as touching as this

Amitav Ghosh

Pinto's narrative is both brutal and beautiful

Business Standard Book Review

Deeply engrossing, finely-tuned, and told with a moving and luminous clarity, this is a splendid and memorable debut

The Hindu

A small and beautiful book . . . Pinto's writing has startling sweetness

Asian Review of Books

Em and the Big Hoom is a joyous read that leaves you chuckling and sad, at once

The Asian Age