THE FIRST NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF THE WORD-OF-MOUTH BESTSELLER IF WOMEN ROSE ROOTED

'You and me against the world, you used to sing. In the days before it became you and me against each other.'

Cat Munro - who has never taken a day off in her working life - quits her corporate job and starts flying lessons in a small plane over the Arizona desert, confronting her fear not only of death, but of life. Her mother, Laura, moves back to the Scottish village where she spent the first years of her marriage to Cat's abusive father. Though they are apart, the past connects mother and daughter, haunts them, binds them.

From the excoriating heat of the Arizona desert to the misty flow of a Highland sea-loch, Sharon Blackie's soaring first novel presents us with the transformative power of landscape, and of storytelling, in women's lives. Above all, The Long Delirious Burning Blue is a story of courage, endurance and redemption.

'It is that rarity, a first novel that smacks of not merely confidence, but authority... powerful, filmic, and achieving the kind of symmetry that novels often aspire to, but rarely reach' Scotsman

Hugely potent. A tribute to the art of storytelling that is itself an affecting and inspiring story' Independent on Sunday

'It is that rarity, a first novel that smacks of not merely confidence, but authority... powerful, filmic, and achieving the kind of symmetry that novels often aspire to, but rarely reach' Scotsman

Dr Sharon Blackie is an award-winning author and a psychologist with a background in mythology and folklore. Her highly acclaimed books, lectures and teaching programmes 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. She has written six books, which have been translated into several languages: The Long Delirious Burning Blue, If Women Rose Rooted, The Enchanted Life, Foxfire, Wolfskin and Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women, Hagitude and Wise Women. Sharon’s awards include the Society of Authors’ Roger Deakin Award and a Creative Scotland Writer’s Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Member of the UK Association of Jungian Analysts. She lives in Cumbria with her husband, dogs, hens and sheep.