This book weaves together the history of postwar Eastern Europe, the dissident movement, and literature. Tomas Venclova, who personally knew Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Czesław Milosz, Joseph Brodsky, and many other prominent figures of the second half of the 20th century, was one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. "Magnetic North" explores the importance of ethical choice and creative resistance to totalitarianism over more than half a century. This book also focuses on Venclova's fiction, expanding our understanding of the significance of this writer, whose books are essential to contemporary European culture.