"Leaving Santorini" opens in the middle of a woman's story filled with sorrows--the death of her mother, the end of an abusive marriage--and turns it into a story of renewal, hope, joy, and rediscovery of her words, her powers, and her children. The poems in the book reveal the unfolding of sadness into joy, through the healing journeys of traveling to islands and learning who she can be in the world.