Attaya, West African tea, is made in three batches from the same tea leaves, and the process is a social occasion that takes hours to be fully enjoyed. Variations to the custom exist regarding the amount of sugar or mint leaves added, but generally the first small glass is strong and bitter, the second somewhat weaker and sweeter, and the third weak and extremely sweet. There are variations to the symbolism as well. The first bitter glass invites us to imagine something sweeter, the second glass is more balanced and real, and the third is sweet, consolidating all that has been experienced throughout the process. Attaya is a metaphor for life and the knowledge it brings, what comes only with the investment of time and the wisdom of perspective. We are the tea leaves.

Taking place in Africa, Europe, and America, spanning decades of life, The Fourth Glass of Tea is the story of a grandmother and granddaughter who grow closer in age over a two-day visit. Each is grappling with loss and unresolved emotions. As they remember their pasts and share their stories, they revive each other as they face themselves in a new way.

A few years after Debbie returns from Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer, her mother dies of cancer. Mariska, her paternal grandmother, is in her 90s, lonely, and unhappily living in an assisted-care facility. She harbors anger and grief, compounded over the decades since her childhood in Hungary and immigration to America in the early 20th century for an arranged marriage. At the heart is Mariska’s uncertainty regarding the fate of her Jewish family, specifically her mother, remaining in Europe during the Holocaust.

The author has woven passages from two personal memoirs into one, telling a true story under imagined circumstances. She honors her late, beloved grandmother in this poignant remembrance.