Em and the Big Hoom

by Jerry Pinto • 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, and also a deeply moving story about love and family relationships.