Near the top of the Vallejo Street Steps on Telegraph Hill is a special place where M comes to think in Kentyn Reynolds’ novel, LumaSynchrony.

Some of the most important scenes in LumaSynchrony don’t happen in laboratories or high-tech facilities—they happen in Washington Square Park in the heart of North Beach.

Standing in the heart of North Beach, the fictional Channel Light Bookstore draws much of its inspiration from City Lights Booksellers & Publishers — a place long associated with art, rebellion, poetry, and the exchange of ideas. In LumaSynchrony, the bookstore becomes Raine’s world, the place where he works, thinks, and quietly shapes the future around him.