Hugo Hamilton has followed up his first memoir "The Speckled People." In "The Harbor Boys," Hamilton focuses on the 1960s, a time when the Troubles were beginning to grip all of Ireland. Hamilton's mother was a German immigrant with a deep hatred for what the Nazis did to her home nation. Hamilton's father was an Irish nationalist, so the past seemed almost oppressive to Hamilton. A waterfront job seems like an escape, but trouble with a Protestant at work brings fresh tension and echoes of a historical conflict into Hamilton's life. Once again, Hamilton has written a lively, if at times somber, memoir. ($24.95 / 272 pages / HarperCollins)