CITY · UNITED STATESBooks set in San Francisco
37.775, -122.419
51 books · 42 authors · 1872–2025
51 books here
Most-set authors
Isabel Allende (3) · Jesse Q. Sutanto (3) · Philip K. Dick (2) · Andrew Sean Greer (2) · Jack Kerouac (2) · Amy Tan (2)
Genres
literary fiction (21) · thriller & suspense (4) · historical fiction (4) · science fiction (2) · adventure (1) · young adult (1) · fantasy (1) · romance (1) · mystery & crime (1)
Books set here
Set in San Francisco (40)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers
memoir brothers after parents die
Altered Carbon
Richard K. Morgan
25th-century Bay City noir
Around the World in Eighty Days
Jules Verne
Attack Surface
Cory Doctorow
Masha's home base; surveillance contractor world and activist community
Automatic Noodle
Annalee Newitz
primary future setting
Carter Beats the Devil
Glen David Gold
1920s magician's city
Daughter of Fortune
Isabel Allende
Gold Rush destination
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick
post-apocalyptic city setting
Frog Music
Emma Donoghue
1876 heat wave and smallpox epidemic
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Malinda Lo
1950s Chinatown setting
Less
Andrew Sean Greer
Arthur Less's home city
Leverage
Amran Gowani
hedge fund thriller setting
McTeague
Frank Norris
where McTeague works and lives
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Robin Sloan
Bookstore and tech world base
My Name Is Emilia del Valle
Isabel Allende
Emilia born, journalist at the Examiner
On the Rooftop
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
The Fillmore district of San Francisco in the 1950s, where Black girl-group sisters Ruth, Esther, and Chloe perform as t
Rejection
Tony Tulathimutte
Millennial SF social scene
Tales of the City
Armistead Maupin
Barbary Lane 1970s bohemian SF
The Bonesetter's Daughter
Amy Tan
Ruth and LuLing modern home
The Buddha in the Attic
Julie Otsuka
Port of arrival for Japanese picture brides
The Confessions of Max Tivoli
Andrew Sean Greer
turn-of-century setting
The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon
Bay Area postmodern conspiracy
The Golden Gate
Vikram Seth
1980s yuppie world
The Japanese Lover
Isabel Allende
primary setting throughout
The Language of Flowers
Vanessa Diffenbaugh
foster care to flower market
The Maltese Falcon
Dashiell Hammett
Sam Spade detective noir
The Man in the High Castle
Philip K. Dick
alt-history Pacific States capital
The Queen of the Damned
Anne Rice
Site of Lestat's rock concert that awakens Akasha
The Subterraneans
Jack Kerouac
Beat-era San Francisco
The Temple of My Familiar
Alice Walker
contemporary character storylines
Valencia
Michelle Tea
Mission District queer underground
Valerie or the Faculty of Dreams
Sara Stridsberg
Hotel in red-light district where Valerie Solanas died in 1988
Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)
Jesse Q. Sutanto
Chinatown cozy mystery
Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping on a Dead Woman
Jesse Q. Sutanto
Vera Wong cozy mystery
What Kind of Paradise
Janelle Brown
dot-com boom San Francisco
The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan
Joy Luck Club meetings
Virtual Light
William Gibson
Squatter community on Bay Bridge
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Jesse Q. Sutanto
Vera Wong's World Famous Tearoom — 60-year-old widow turns amateur detective after a body is found in her shop
All Tomorrow's Parties
William Gibson
post-quake shantytown on the Bridge
We Run the Tides
Vendela Vida
mid-1980s coming-of-age
Also featuring San Francisco (11)
A Sea of Unspoken Things
Adrienne Young
protagonist escapes to
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan
1970s punk rock scenes
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell
Luisa Rey thriller, 1973
Machinehood
S.B. Divya
Secondary setting (near-future 2095)
On the Road
Jack Kerouac
West Coast destination
Silent Witness
Richard North Patterson
Tony Lord attorney office
The Bastard of Istanbul
Elif Shafak
Armenian-American family chapters
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Tom Wolfe
Acid Tests and Trips Festival
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
Secondary setting: exile years, protagonist's American home
The Mars Room
Rachel Kushner
Protagonist's pre-prison San Francisco life
The Volcano Daughters
Gina Apostol
Consuelo pursues art career
Notable locations in San Francisco
San Francisco Chinatown2Chinatown, San Francisco1Fillmore District1Golden Gate Park1Noe Valley1Polk Street, San Francisco1Richmond District, San Francisco1San Francisco Bay Bridge1San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge1Sea Cliff, San Francisco1
Nearby books
Red Team Blues
Cory Doctorow
0 km · San Francisco Bay Area
Ruth Run
Elizabeth Kaufman
0 km · San Francisco, California
McTeague
Frank Norris
1 km · Polk Street, San Francisco
On the Rooftop
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
2 km · Fillmore District
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Malinda Lo
2 km · San Francisco Chinatown
The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan
2 km · Chinatown, San Francisco
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
Jesse Q. Sutanto
2 km · San Francisco Chinatown
Automatic Noodle
Annalee Newitz
3 km · Noe Valley