A wide reader response was caused by Alexander Bakhvalov’s novel about test pilots “Tenderness for the Roaring Beast”, the first part of which was published by the Sovremennik publishing house in 1973, the second in 1980, and together they were published in 1986. And so a new book... At its center are the images of three half-brothers, different both in character and in life position. The reader will certainly note the sharpness of the author's view on the social problems raised in the novel “A Time to Lie and Celebrate.” The novel makes us think about why the all-destructive erosion of moral foundations is still so strong in our society.