Have You Seen Luis Velez?
Written by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Narrated by Michael Crouch
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller.
New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde brings heartwarming authenticity to the story of two strangers who find that kindness is a powerful antidote to fear.
Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn’t belong. Not with his mother’s new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father’s wife. Not at school, where he’s an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he’s tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who’s introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez?
Mildred Gutermann, a German Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, has been alone since her caretaker disappeared. She turns to Raymond for help, and as he tries to track Luis down, a deep and unexpected friendship blossoms between the two.
Despondent at the loss of Luis, Mildred isolates herself further from a neighborhood devolving into bigotry and fear. Determined not to let her give up, Raymond helps her see that for every terrible act the world delivers, there is a mirror image of deep kindness, and Mildred helps Raymond see that there’s hope if you have someone to hold on to.
Catherine Ryan Hyde
Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of thirty-three published books. Her bestselling 1999 novel, Pay It Forward, adapted into a major Warner Bros. motion picture, made the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults list and was translated into more than two dozen languages for distribution in more than thirty countries. Her novels Becoming Chloe and Jumpstart the World were included on the ALA’s Rainbow List; Jumpstart the World was also a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards and won Rainbow Awards in two categories. The Language of Hoofbeats won a Rainbow Award. More than fifty of her short stories have been published in many journals, including the Antioch Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and the Sun, and in the anthologies Santa Barbara Stories and California Shorts, as well as the bestselling anthology Dog Is My Co-Pilot. Her short fiction received honorable mention in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, a second-place win for the Tobias Wolff Award, and nominations for Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have also been cited in Best American Short Stories. Hyde is the founder and former president of the Pay It Forward Foundation. As a professional public speaker, she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with AmeriCorps members at the White House, and shared a dais with Bill Clinton. An avid equestrian, photographer, and traveler, she lives in California.
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Reviews for Have You Seen Luis Velez?
455 ratings62 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So heartfelt from this 77 year old woman. Thank you very much.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wonderful story, lots of important deep ideas to ponder. Loved the unlikely friendship of Raymond and Mrs. G. May we all have a friend like that in our lives.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The recording was terrible. It had a lot of the ingredients for a great book. But the recording skipped sections and didn’t hold my bookmarks.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Good, quick read! Makes your heart happy, but wish it had more substance
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Such a beautiful story! This book was great I'm so glad I found it.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved every minute of this book. It was wonderful. Very life affirming.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a beautiful book! I laughed and cried and at times, worried. I just kept wanting to know more, learn what would happen next. It’s an unusual story but, in my opinion, a beautiful one. Enjoy!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Powerful and thought provoking with excellent narration
Endearing character development
Thanks1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the best stories I've read. Very thought provoking about racism, kindness and generosity.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The voices of the characters were performed so well and the uniqueness of the story itself seemed to draw me into Raymond’s life…experiencing what he did. Also there were lots of words of wisdom that we could and should apply to our daily lives.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A beautiful thought provoking novel and fantastic narration . Definitely would like to read more by this author ??
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I’m giving this book a 4 because it changed me. I’ll always be glad l read it.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book holds more beauty and meaning than the last ten books I've read combined. The world needs more compelling stories about kindness to remind us of its great power and purpose during what tends to be our divisive, self-centered, greedy, mean-spirited times... It was a blessing to read and be uplifted. I appreciated the narration, too.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic book. Full of the complexity of life and emotions
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Have You Seen Luis Velez was mentioned as an example of a well written novel about real love - not Harlequin Romances - in our C-19 online Book Club along with Wurthing Heights, Persuasion, The Last of the Mohicans, Anna Karenina, The English Patient. True it is about a relationship that develops with ups and downs over the whole of the story and both parties are deeply changed. In this case it is between Raymond, 17, and Millie, 92.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved this book so much!! Wonderful story of humanity ❣️
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It ends very abruptly at chapter 18 of of 20...
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great story about being nice to others, presents a number of opportunities to think about how you would respond. Would be a great book to read with a teen to adult friend, or to share in a book club.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely wonderful book. Uplifting. Beautifully written and perfectly narrated, well matched to the characters
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A wonderful feel good story about a friendship between a young man and an elderly, blind woman. Keep the tissues handy as you will need them!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book!!! Lawd!!!! One of the best books I have ever read!!! So much wisdom!!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is such a touching and meaningful story. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A novel which brings all sorts of emotions into the listener from joy, hope and despair all in one. After a long time, this was a book that was difficult to stop listening to; just had to finish it
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone should read and soak in the message of this book no matter their age.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a wonderful story! I loved every minute. Took the long ride home so I could listen to my book
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a beautiful story of intergenerational love and assistance. So great to listen to and learn many life lessons.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautifully written and read. Slow, sure and insightful. Loved it!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The characters in this book are vividly developed, the kind you keep thinking about when it’s finished and wish were in your life. The story is extremely worthwhile. And the narration… simply brilliantly-done.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was such a beautiful expression of the myriad and unique nuances of Love.It is a very healing book for anyone who is disheartened by cruelty and the lack of compassion in the world and for anyone who has experienced great loss. A balance of the beauty and pain of life is brilliantly presented in the hearts ,minds and experiences of the characters in this book
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely wonderful book. So full of insights and pearls of wisdom. Restores my faith in humanity.