Jerry Pinto 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 Surviving Women; Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb, which won the National Award for the Best Book on Cinema in 2007; and Bombay, Meri Jaan: Writings on Mumbai (co-edited with Naresh Fernandes). Em and The Big Hoom is his first novel.
Em and The Big Hoom is set in Bombay during the last decades of the Twentieth Century. It tells the compelling story of the Mendeses mother, father, daughter and son. Between Em, the beedi – smoking, hyperactive mother, driven frequently to hospital by her mania and failed suicide attempts, and The Big
Hoom, the rock-solid, dependable father, trying to hold things together as best he can, they are an extraordinary family.
Filled with endearing and eccentric characters, and marked by sparkling dialogue and restrained emotion, this is one of the most powerful and moving novels to be published in India in a long time.