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The Long Delirious Burning Blue
'It is that rarity, a first novel that smacks of not merely confidence, but authority.' The Scotsman
From the excoriating heat of the Arizona desert to the misty flow of a north-west Highland sea-loch, Sharon Blackie's first novel presents us with landscape in all its transformative power. An honest and moving exploration of the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, The Long Delirious Burning Blue is above all a story of courage, endurance and redemption.
'Hugely potent. A tribute to the art of storytelling that is itself an affecting and inspiring story.' Independent on Sunday
From the excoriating heat of the Arizona desert to the misty flow of a north-west Highland sea-loch, Sharon Blackie's first novel presents us with landscape in all its transformative power. An honest and moving exploration of the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, The Long Delirious Burning Blue is above all a story of courage, endurance and redemption.
'Hugely potent. A tribute to the art of storytelling that is itself an affecting and inspiring story.' Independent on Sunday
- GenresFiction
396 pages, Paperback
First published October 16, 2013
23 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
About the author
Sharon Blackie
17 books768 followersDr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author, and a psychologist with a background in mythology and folklore. Her highly acclaimed books, lectures and teaching programs are focused on reimagining women’s stories, and on the relevance of myth and fairy tales to the personal, cultural and environmental issues we face today.
As well as writing six books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling If Women Rose Rooted, her writing has appeared in anthologies, collections and in several international media outlets – among them the Guardian, the Irish Times, the i and the Scotsman. Her books have been translated into several languages, and she has featured in programs by the BBC, US public radio and independent filmmakers. Her awards include the Society of Authors’ Roger Deakin Award, and a Creative Scotland Writer’s Award. Her most recent book, Wise Women: Myths and Stories for Midlife and Beyond was published by Virago in October 2024.
Sharon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Member of the UK Association of Jungian Analysts, awarded ‘in recognition of the importance of lifetime achievement and contribution to Jungian ideas in the world’. She has taught and lectured at several academic institutions, Jungian organisations, retreat centres and cultural festivals around the world. She is online faculty for Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, where she teaches a Graduate Certificate Course on ‘Narrative Psychological Approaches to Finding Ourselves in Fairy Tales’ and other programs.
Sharon’s much-loved publication ‘The Art of Enchantment’ is a Global Top Ten Literature Substack.
Sharon lives in Cumbria, in the far north of England, with her husband, dogs, hens and sheep. She is represented by Jane Graham Maw, at Graham Maw Christie Agency.
As well as writing six books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling If Women Rose Rooted, her writing has appeared in anthologies, collections and in several international media outlets – among them the Guardian, the Irish Times, the i and the Scotsman. Her books have been translated into several languages, and she has featured in programs by the BBC, US public radio and independent filmmakers. Her awards include the Society of Authors’ Roger Deakin Award, and a Creative Scotland Writer’s Award. Her most recent book, Wise Women: Myths and Stories for Midlife and Beyond was published by Virago in October 2024.
Sharon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Member of the UK Association of Jungian Analysts, awarded ‘in recognition of the importance of lifetime achievement and contribution to Jungian ideas in the world’. She has taught and lectured at several academic institutions, Jungian organisations, retreat centres and cultural festivals around the world. She is online faculty for Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, where she teaches a Graduate Certificate Course on ‘Narrative Psychological Approaches to Finding Ourselves in Fairy Tales’ and other programs.
Sharon’s much-loved publication ‘The Art of Enchantment’ is a Global Top Ten Literature Substack.
Sharon lives in Cumbria, in the far north of England, with her husband, dogs, hens and sheep. She is represented by Jane Graham Maw, at Graham Maw Christie Agency.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 10, 2016
“The Long Delirious Burning Blue” by Sharon Blackie is an amazing first novel. Relationships are never easy, especially between mother and daughter. Cat Munroe’s childhood was fraught with emotional baggage – an abusive and alcoholic father, her parents’ disastrous marriage, a mother who also turned to alcohol as solace following the divorce, the young girl forced to care for her mother and their survival. All the secrets and anger that made Cat everything her mother wasn’t.
Cat was calm, self-controlled, afraid to let herself love. Her mother, Laura was emotional, needy, unable to see more than her story, her own viewpoint, but who suffered abuse and abandonment and was starved for affection, for someone to fill the giant hole in her heart. Now they live on two different continents.
Both think they know all there is to know about each other, about themselves. But as one turns 40 and another 60, as one faces her fear of flying and the other her fear of being alone, they both begin to heal. Told through a shared perspective, there’s one passage I especially liked when Cat begins making new rituals and breaking old habits:
“I wallow in words. I don’t know what I’m hoping to find, among all those words. Not answers – I’m not naïve enough to expect answers. A residue, perhaps, of what I might have been. Because after all these years of frantic striving I have stopped doing: I am trying simply to become. Learning to be, all over again. I have silenced all the voices that would tell me what to do. That tell me to be like them. To live like them, and to think like them. Or better still, not to think at all.”
Cat wonders if this how her mother felt -- a woman who loved telling stories, writing and authoring children’s books, finally finding her voice after a long absence. In fact the storytelling, the old fables and fairytales, is one of my favorite parts. This is a remarkable book filled with so many intricate layers -- courage, redemption, forgiveness, growth. Cat can be aggravating. Laura maddening. But this is definitely a story to be shared and discussed with others.
Cat was calm, self-controlled, afraid to let herself love. Her mother, Laura was emotional, needy, unable to see more than her story, her own viewpoint, but who suffered abuse and abandonment and was starved for affection, for someone to fill the giant hole in her heart. Now they live on two different continents.
Both think they know all there is to know about each other, about themselves. But as one turns 40 and another 60, as one faces her fear of flying and the other her fear of being alone, they both begin to heal. Told through a shared perspective, there’s one passage I especially liked when Cat begins making new rituals and breaking old habits:
“I wallow in words. I don’t know what I’m hoping to find, among all those words. Not answers – I’m not naïve enough to expect answers. A residue, perhaps, of what I might have been. Because after all these years of frantic striving I have stopped doing: I am trying simply to become. Learning to be, all over again. I have silenced all the voices that would tell me what to do. That tell me to be like them. To live like them, and to think like them. Or better still, not to think at all.”
Cat wonders if this how her mother felt -- a woman who loved telling stories, writing and authoring children’s books, finally finding her voice after a long absence. In fact the storytelling, the old fables and fairytales, is one of my favorite parts. This is a remarkable book filled with so many intricate layers -- courage, redemption, forgiveness, growth. Cat can be aggravating. Laura maddening. But this is definitely a story to be shared and discussed with others.
June 1, 2013
This is one of the most satisfying novels I've read in a long time - it really had me gripped and when I got to the end, I cried. Not many books nowadays reduce me to tears, particularly ones that have happy endings.
The main character, Cat, is a 39 year old legal executive with an American pharmaceutical firm based in Arizona. She's married to a nice guy, earns lots of money, has a beautiful home and is deeply unhappy. Cat has begun to have crippling panic attacks which, at first, she believes to be the symptoms of physical illness and it is only when faced with a doctor's diagnosis that she realises they have their roots in anxieties that go back to childhood.
Everyone believes Cat to be completely in control and indestructible. But it's only a mask to hide her vulnerability. Not even her husband knows how fragile she is. Cat is afraid of flying, and when she has a massive panic attack on a business trip and is almost unable to get on the plane, she makes up her mind to deal with her fear the only way she knows how; by confronting it. Cat decides to learn to fly and the terror and exhilaration she experiences become the key to understanding herself.
'I have been asleep for forty years. This is what I need: this fear, this risk, this wind rocking my wings. This is what I have been missing. This is what it means to be alive – up here, on the edge of death.’
This is a novel about how fear can cripple our lives and prevent us living fully. It's a novel about mothers and daughters - Cat's mother is an alcoholic and their relationship has been poisoned by guilt and blame and anger. But it's also a novel about the power of stories. Our lives are a narrative and we can choose how to tell it - not only that, if we don't like the story we can change it. As Cat does when she walks out of her career and her marriage into 'the long, delirious, burning blue'.
Cat's mother, Laura, is a story-teller, an author of children's books. When the novel opens she has been sober for years, but has lost the ability to write. Returning to the west-highland village where she had lived with her violent husband, she begins to work through her own story and, in writing it down, begins to heal herself and her relationship with her daughter.
One of my favourite bits from the book is the 'mission statement' Cat has to approve in a board meeting, which is the subject of her first rebellion against corporate America. She can no longer swallow the meaningless jargon and the half-truths. My other favourites were the flying scenes - so vivid I was up there in the cockpit almost sick with vertigo. And I really fancied the flying instructor . . .
The author, Sharon Blackie, is the editor of Two Ravens Press, based on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Two Ravens publish poetry and fiction and the beautiful glossy magazine 'Earthlines'. Their remit is broadly 'ecoliterature' but they state that they are looking for 'writing that is capable of challenging and unpicking the status quo, of shifting the worldview of their readers away from the creed of "Progress is Growth is Consumption".' This novel certainly does that. It's Sharon's first novel - and the only parallel I can think of is Barbara Kingsolver, who manages to combine ecological and political issues with beautiful prose. I'm now eagerly awaiting Sharon's second novel, The Bee Dancer, which is apparently coming soon.
The title is a quote from a poem called 'High Flight' written by 19 year old Canadian poet John Gillespie Magee, a spitfire pilot killed in a mid-air collision in 1941.
The main character, Cat, is a 39 year old legal executive with an American pharmaceutical firm based in Arizona. She's married to a nice guy, earns lots of money, has a beautiful home and is deeply unhappy. Cat has begun to have crippling panic attacks which, at first, she believes to be the symptoms of physical illness and it is only when faced with a doctor's diagnosis that she realises they have their roots in anxieties that go back to childhood.
Everyone believes Cat to be completely in control and indestructible. But it's only a mask to hide her vulnerability. Not even her husband knows how fragile she is. Cat is afraid of flying, and when she has a massive panic attack on a business trip and is almost unable to get on the plane, she makes up her mind to deal with her fear the only way she knows how; by confronting it. Cat decides to learn to fly and the terror and exhilaration she experiences become the key to understanding herself.
'I have been asleep for forty years. This is what I need: this fear, this risk, this wind rocking my wings. This is what I have been missing. This is what it means to be alive – up here, on the edge of death.’
This is a novel about how fear can cripple our lives and prevent us living fully. It's a novel about mothers and daughters - Cat's mother is an alcoholic and their relationship has been poisoned by guilt and blame and anger. But it's also a novel about the power of stories. Our lives are a narrative and we can choose how to tell it - not only that, if we don't like the story we can change it. As Cat does when she walks out of her career and her marriage into 'the long, delirious, burning blue'.
Cat's mother, Laura, is a story-teller, an author of children's books. When the novel opens she has been sober for years, but has lost the ability to write. Returning to the west-highland village where she had lived with her violent husband, she begins to work through her own story and, in writing it down, begins to heal herself and her relationship with her daughter.
One of my favourite bits from the book is the 'mission statement' Cat has to approve in a board meeting, which is the subject of her first rebellion against corporate America. She can no longer swallow the meaningless jargon and the half-truths. My other favourites were the flying scenes - so vivid I was up there in the cockpit almost sick with vertigo. And I really fancied the flying instructor . . .
The author, Sharon Blackie, is the editor of Two Ravens Press, based on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Two Ravens publish poetry and fiction and the beautiful glossy magazine 'Earthlines'. Their remit is broadly 'ecoliterature' but they state that they are looking for 'writing that is capable of challenging and unpicking the status quo, of shifting the worldview of their readers away from the creed of "Progress is Growth is Consumption".' This novel certainly does that. It's Sharon's first novel - and the only parallel I can think of is Barbara Kingsolver, who manages to combine ecological and political issues with beautiful prose. I'm now eagerly awaiting Sharon's second novel, The Bee Dancer, which is apparently coming soon.
The title is a quote from a poem called 'High Flight' written by 19 year old Canadian poet John Gillespie Magee, a spitfire pilot killed in a mid-air collision in 1941.
February 7, 2024
Completely brilliant. I want to read it again, and again, and again.
June 23, 2025
A moving story set in ARIZONA / SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
The Long Delirious Burning Blue by Sharon Blackie is a haunting and deeply moving story of how domestic abuse and alcoholism can have long-lasting effects on everyone involved. It also explores the complexities of family relationships, particularly the fraught and tumultuous bond between a daughter, Cat Munro, and her mother, Laura.
Set alternately in the misty Highlands of Scotland and the arid desert of Arizona, the story starts with Laura’s upbringing in a dysfunctional family, where she is forced to live with her cold and unfeeling aunt from an early age. This backdrop meant she was desperate to leave home and marry as soon as possible, and she falls for an unsuitable fisherman who, despite initial good intentions, starts to use his fists on her to alleviate his frustrations.
Laura finally feels strong enough to leave him, taking Cat with her but she eventually succumbs to depression and the appeal of the bottle overwhelms her. Cat’s life is subsequently marked by emotional turbulence, her life coloured by the shadow of her difficult relationship with Laura, a woman who remains both fiercely independent but emotionally distant.
Through Cat’s eyes, the author unravels the tension between mother and daughter, showing how their differences have shaped and complicated Cat’s own understanding of herself. Their relationship is far from simple, and the narrative deftly illustrates how love, resentment and yearning can coexist in ways that are sometimes painful and hard to reconcile.
Cat herself finally leaves home for a new life in America, where she works in an unstimulating career and has an equally unstimulating relationship. Her fear of flying is ironically her saviour as she makes the decision to learn to fly. Being up above the desert, with just the cerulean sky for company, she finds an inner strength she didn’t know she had. This not only leads to self-revelation but also to a more satisfying personal life.
The novel is a delicate balance between emotional exploration and character-driven storytelling. Cat’s internal struggles, her efforts to understand her mother’s behaviour and her own attempts at forging a path separate from Laura’s shadow are written with a subtle, poetic intensity. The prose is sharp and introspective, allowing readers to feel the emotional and psychological landscapes of the characters. The sense of isolation that Cat feels is palpable, as is her yearning for connection and understanding, particularly with her distant and sometimes cold mother.
However, what makes this story truly stand out is the nuanced treatment of the mother-daughter relationship. The reader sit with the discomfort of unresolved conflicts, the ambiguity of love and the weight of generational trauma. This lack of a neat, tidy ending adds to the novel’s emotional power, as it mirrors the often messy, unspoken realities of family dynamics.
The Long Delirious Burning Blue is a beautifully written, emotionally charged novel that examines the intricacies of family relationships, the struggle for identity and the search for meaning within the often painful dynamics between mothers and daughters. I just wonder if the in-depth descriptions of learning to fly were so necessary.
The Long Delirious Burning Blue by Sharon Blackie is a haunting and deeply moving story of how domestic abuse and alcoholism can have long-lasting effects on everyone involved. It also explores the complexities of family relationships, particularly the fraught and tumultuous bond between a daughter, Cat Munro, and her mother, Laura.
Set alternately in the misty Highlands of Scotland and the arid desert of Arizona, the story starts with Laura’s upbringing in a dysfunctional family, where she is forced to live with her cold and unfeeling aunt from an early age. This backdrop meant she was desperate to leave home and marry as soon as possible, and she falls for an unsuitable fisherman who, despite initial good intentions, starts to use his fists on her to alleviate his frustrations.
Laura finally feels strong enough to leave him, taking Cat with her but she eventually succumbs to depression and the appeal of the bottle overwhelms her. Cat’s life is subsequently marked by emotional turbulence, her life coloured by the shadow of her difficult relationship with Laura, a woman who remains both fiercely independent but emotionally distant.
Through Cat’s eyes, the author unravels the tension between mother and daughter, showing how their differences have shaped and complicated Cat’s own understanding of herself. Their relationship is far from simple, and the narrative deftly illustrates how love, resentment and yearning can coexist in ways that are sometimes painful and hard to reconcile.
Cat herself finally leaves home for a new life in America, where she works in an unstimulating career and has an equally unstimulating relationship. Her fear of flying is ironically her saviour as she makes the decision to learn to fly. Being up above the desert, with just the cerulean sky for company, she finds an inner strength she didn’t know she had. This not only leads to self-revelation but also to a more satisfying personal life.
The novel is a delicate balance between emotional exploration and character-driven storytelling. Cat’s internal struggles, her efforts to understand her mother’s behaviour and her own attempts at forging a path separate from Laura’s shadow are written with a subtle, poetic intensity. The prose is sharp and introspective, allowing readers to feel the emotional and psychological landscapes of the characters. The sense of isolation that Cat feels is palpable, as is her yearning for connection and understanding, particularly with her distant and sometimes cold mother.
However, what makes this story truly stand out is the nuanced treatment of the mother-daughter relationship. The reader sit with the discomfort of unresolved conflicts, the ambiguity of love and the weight of generational trauma. This lack of a neat, tidy ending adds to the novel’s emotional power, as it mirrors the often messy, unspoken realities of family dynamics.
The Long Delirious Burning Blue is a beautifully written, emotionally charged novel that examines the intricacies of family relationships, the struggle for identity and the search for meaning within the often painful dynamics between mothers and daughters. I just wonder if the in-depth descriptions of learning to fly were so necessary.
September 9, 2019
An interesting book that I found much personal connection with. A woman who did all the right things and moved into a conventional modern lifestyle is miserable 12 years later. Unhappy with her profession, her loveless marriage, her neglected and neglectful mother, and her overwhelming fears she decides a change is order. Quits her job, her marriage and tackles her fear of flying by taking flying lessons. Such change often causes much reflection and she begins to heal her relationship with her mother.
The book is set in Phoenix AZ - an area that I am intimately familiar with - and she describes the desert sky and the area in a way that brought fond memories of the area.
My one complaint is the amount of the self-talk in the book. I understood it was the way the author ensured that we understood what was going on in her mind but I thought there was a bit too much.
The book is set in Phoenix AZ - an area that I am intimately familiar with - and she describes the desert sky and the area in a way that brought fond memories of the area.
My one complaint is the amount of the self-talk in the book. I understood it was the way the author ensured that we understood what was going on in her mind but I thought there was a bit too much.
May 21, 2024
I started off this book not really fond of Cat and so I procrastinated reading it, but once I truly gave this book a shot, I could not rate it less than 5 stars.
While I do retain some issues with word choice in the novel and I feel as though the Jack character was completely dropped (and maybe Jesse should have been developed more in place of him 👀), the depth of detail of the trauma in this text is what makes this book so impactful. This book shows the complexity of dysfunction and how each character manifests their trauma response in an intricate, unique way. I found this book to be so intellectually interesting and I enjoyed reworking my understanding of the characters gradually as the novel went on. It was all heartbreaking, but then again, that’s life.
While I do retain some issues with word choice in the novel and I feel as though the Jack character was completely dropped (and maybe Jesse should have been developed more in place of him 👀), the depth of detail of the trauma in this text is what makes this book so impactful. This book shows the complexity of dysfunction and how each character manifests their trauma response in an intricate, unique way. I found this book to be so intellectually interesting and I enjoyed reworking my understanding of the characters gradually as the novel went on. It was all heartbreaking, but then again, that’s life.
August 27, 2024
Bought in Ullapool's 'The Ceilidh Place' bookshop, impelled, in part because of it having 'blue' in the title, a once upon a time method of selecting books in charity shops. And this did not disappoint: the 'Delirious burning blue' of the title a reference to the sky wherein Cat overcame her long-held, childhood-induced fears and found the courage to fully live, despite the failings of her mother, who in parallel fashion, finally forgave herself.
The insertion of progress with flying lessons added spice and seasoning to an admirably constructed tale.
The insertion of progress with flying lessons added spice and seasoning to an admirably constructed tale.
July 21, 2018
If ever you've wanted to accomplish something in your life that actually leaves you shaking with fear, read this book. If close family relationships and the delicate balance their within interests you, read this book. It's sensitively written, though quite a brutal history between mother and daughter. I found myself siding totally with the daughter during the read, but at the end allowing some sympathy for her mother.
August 25, 2025
Really enjoyed this and struggled with rating it. Think it’s 3.5 stars from me. Well written, deep and interesting - about relationships with mothers and deep seated childhood trauma. Easy to read and took me into the worlds of the main characters beautifully. But it was too long. I skipped so much of the flying lessons as wasn’t interested and it didn’t add to the story. Would have been a solid 4 if 100 pages shorter.
July 5, 2017
This is a story about pain, about memories, about how we burry things so deep to escape the pain of it, that we forget, but our bodies don't. This is a story about stories and how healing they are. This is a story about 'Nothing ever came out of violence'. This is a story about how forgiving is the first step into healing... This is a story about letting go... It's a beautiful story. A must read.
June 25, 2025
A moving story of personal growth and complicated relationships. If you’ve read Blackie’s Hagitude you will know that this story is at least partially biographical. A good read. (See what I did there? 😉)
August 7, 2024
I loved this so much. Sobbing, the ending both healed and broke me
October 19, 2024
Superb book crossing two very different continents but fantastic story telling of two women facing their demons.
December 20, 2024
Fitting that this was the book that completed my first serious reading challenge, I’m bawling. What an incredible story of loss, heartache and new beginnings as well as endings.
July 19, 2025
What can I say? Sharon Blackie was a born writer. Particularly a favorite aspect of mine, the parallel with the selkie was crafted beautifully.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews