Synopsis "Profoundly moving . . . I cannot remember when I last read something as touching as this." --Amitav Ghosh, author of "The Glass Palace"
First published by a small press in India, Jerry Pinto's devastatingly original debut novel has already taken the literary world by storm. Suffused with compassion, humor, and hard-won wisdom, "Em and the Big Hoom "is a modern masterpiece, and its American publication is certain to be one of the major literary events of the season.
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. This accomplished debut is graceful and urgent, with a one-of-a-kind voice that will stay with readers long after the last page.About the AuthorJerry Pinto (born 1966) is a Mumbai-based Indian writer of poetry, prose and children's fiction, as well as a journalist. Pinto writes in English, and his works include, Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb (2006) which won the Best Book on Cinema Award at the 54th National Film Awards, Surviving Women (2000) and Asylum and Other Poems (2003). His first novel Em and The Big Hoom was published in 2012. Pinto won the Windham-Campbell prize in 2016 for his fiction.
