This is a book about all the magical new things that you can discover if you're brave enough to break out of your boring routine and take a fresh look at the world around you. But this is also a story about love. Passionate, selfless love. That may seem ridiculously naive in today's world... So be it. It's a book about how, whatever trials life may have in store for you, if at heart you are a romantic, if you know how to love, then everything will work out.
An artist's novel, a journey of life, street art and magic, a story written by the city itself and by the street-artists living there. Our heroes are both ordinary and extraordinary young romantics, they use their life and art to express new ideas. The story follows a group of street artists, not unlike Banksy, Ben Eine, Cityzen Kane, C215, Roa. These characters are secretive. They live in their own world with their own philosophy and outlook on life. But how does one become such urban romantic? We see a freedom seeking artist in Pavel's new novel, we see his journey, his adventures, his dilemmas and his choices. What would you choose? The comfort of daily routine or the free spirit of art? For Pavel's characters this becomes a question of life and death.
"This whole novel is about bursting out against a role, against the expectations laid out for us and against surroundings we've grown too comfortable in. Much of the book is a succession of impressions, of ruminations on life, on art, on reality, on our surroundings. The protagonist, Max, is reminiscent of a Fitzgerald type narrator, pulled in every which way and wandering through the conflict of the story. I was deeply impressed by the mood that surrounds it, the simple language combined with deep meaning, the motifs of friendship, love, everyday magic, and probably one of the biggest things that of the consequences of adulthood, of finding oneself."
-- Natalie Meyer, California, USA "This book is about the new generation of young people, about new ideas, about the fact that everything is possible if one has faith. Very emotional, soulful, and sincere. I read it in one go. The ending both shocked and inspired, made me want to live and explore life. The book's spirituality reminds me of Haruki Murakami but I disagree with the final choice of the lead character." -- Yevgeni Topunov, Cambridge, UK
"At first I thought Pavel Kostin's 'It's Time' was going to be a twenty-first-century Catcher in the Rye set in Russia, but then it sets off into the summer sunset of the naval port's docklands. I like the way Kostin's main character stays positive against a backdrop of decaying industrial sprawl - I don't know why this strikes me as a non-commercial version of 80's punk, but it does just that and I thought it very refreshing." -- Andrew Whitmore, UK
"A beautifully, lyrically crafted novel. If one could combine the contradictory ideas of a soul's torments and the joy of life in one book this would be the book. Coming from a young author, it was so refreshing to discover no cynicism or crude language. It was a joy to read. You felt extraordinary compassion for the protagonist in his tormented quest, you rejoiced in his optimism, you were bound to feel what he felt. Just look at his description of waves coming to shore: 'The ubiquitous arrival of waves, one after another. It's so calming, if you look at it. But the point is not this subtle murmur of waves. It's the fact that after this wave there will be another, and then another. And so forever. It never fails to calm me. Forever. Do my problems even have a meaning compared to this word...' But don't get me wrong it's not just a descriptive novel of rumination: there is a plot here skilfully designed and not resolved until the very end." -- Irene Rudra, Texas, USA
"I love this book because, although it is the story of certain unusual individuals living unusual lives, it illuminates all the existence of all of us. Thanks to Kostin's gift for characterisation, we really believe the conversations and musings of this cast of outsiders. They, like Pavel, and like me, are fascinated by the city, and the way we all interact with it. Kostin hymns the urban landscape and the young people that refuse to just exist in it, but live in it, by it, and through it. We see them, and their lives, and their art (which accompanies the text) and we see the way their art elevates their lives. From up on the rooftop, we can see everything, and it is beautiful." -- James Rann, The Translator --urban-romantics.com
