The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood is a nonfiction book by journalist David Simon and former homicide detective Ed Burns, published in 1997. It is an immersive work of narrative journalism that follows the lives of several real people living and working around the open-air drug market at Fayette and Monroe Streets in West Baltimore over the course of one year. The book emerged from Simon's leave of absence from the Baltimore Sun in 1993, during which he and Burns spent extensive time with residents to capture the realities of their daily existence.
The book introduces readers to figures like Gary McCullough, Fran Boyd, and their son DeAndre, depicting their struggles with addiction, poverty, and survival in a neighborhood devastated by the drug trade. Though written with the pace and detail of a novel, all names and events are real. The New York Times named it a Notable Book of the Year, and it is widely regarded as a landmark work of urban journalism.
