Em and The Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

Blurb (from the GoodReads):

'A beautiful book, a child's-eye view of madness, full of love, pain, and, unaccountably, much wild comedy' Salman Rushdie

In a tiny flat in Bombay Imelda Mendes - Em to her children - holds her family in thrall with her flamboyance, her manic affection and her cruel candour. Her husband - to whom she was once 'Buttercup' - and her two children must bear her 'microweathers', her swings from laugh-out-loud joy to dark malevolence.

Brilliantly comic and almost unbearably moving, Jerry Pinto's portrait of a woman finding it difficult to stay sane - and what happens to those who cannot help but love her - is one of the most powerful and original fiction debuts of recent years.

Cobalt Blue by Sachin Kundalkar, Jerry Pinto (Translator)

Blurb (from the jacket):

A paying guest seems like a win-win proposition to the Joshi family. He s ready with the rent, he s willing to lend a hand when he can and he s happy to listen to Mrs Joshi on the imminent collapse of our culture. 

But he s also a man of mystery. He has no last name. He has no family, no friends, no history and no plans for the future. 

The siblings Tanay and Anuja are smitten by him. He overturns their lives. And when he vanishes, he breaks their hearts. 

Elegantly wrought and exquisitely spare, Cobalt Blue is a tale of rapturous love and fierce heartbreak told with tenderness and unsparing clarity.