I sent it to my friend because he is often hard pressed for time, and is therefore choosy about the books he invests his time in. Not because I did not want others to read it. In the case of Em and The Big Hoom, I recommended it to only one friend. I want them to know that they crossed my mind while I was reading this book – whatever the reason may be.

I genuinely want to know what they thought about a particular book. On rare occasions, I write a personal note with my recommendation, because I want people to know that I’m not just clicking a button. While I regularly shout out book recommendations from here, I sometimes share them on goodreads with selected people. Why? Because I was still trying to gather my thoughts around its beauty. But I’m reviewing Em and The Big Hoom really late. I am not quiet about the books that I like. Em and the Big Hoom is his first novel.There’s so much in your head that you can’t bear any distractions, you want to pay attention, careful attention, otherwise everything is going to explode. 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. He is now associated with MelJol, an NGO that works in the sphere of child rights. He has been a mathematics tutor, school librarian, journalist and columnist. About the author Jerry Pinto lives and works in Mumbai. 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. 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. In a one-bedroom-hall-kitchen in Mahim Bombay, Imelda Mendes≮m to her childrenholds her family in thrall with her flamboyance, her compelling imagination, her unspoken love, her sometimes cruel candour. It was also longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

One of the very best books to come out of India in a long, long time.Salman Rushdie Em and the Big Hoom recently won The Hindu Literary Prize 2012. This is the best Indian novel in years.Prayaag Akbar, The Sunday Guardian ∞m 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, √ marvellous debut, sensitive, livened by crystal-cut prose and Pintos trademark mordant humour. √ marvellous debut, sensitive, livened by crystal-cut prose and Pintos trademark mordant humour.

Em and The Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto