Katherine Koch's The Sower of Black Field wins top Catholic novel award for 2025
Katherine Koch's novel The Sower of Black Field has won the Catholic Media Association's 2025 first-place award for best Catholic novel. The book blends history and fiction to tell the story of Father Koch and his parishioners during Nazi rule. It explores how faith and compassion can challenge hateful ideologies.
The novel centres on the real-life figure of Father Koch, a priest whose teachings clash with Nazi ideology. His sermons encourage small but powerful acts of kindness among his congregation. These quiet resistances stand in defiance of the regime's cruelty.
At the heart of the story is a theological struggle between Father Koch and Wilhelm Seiz, a Nazi charity worker. Seiz embodies the party's belief in racial superiority, while Koch upholds Passionist theology. This tradition sees the suffering Christ reflected in all people, regardless of background.
Koch's meticulous research brings the era to life, blending historical detail with vivid storytelling. The book avoids easy answers, instead showing how ordinary people can undermine authoritarianism through perseverance and love. It asks difficult questions about faith in the face of evil, without offering simplistic resolutions.
The novel's recognition by the Catholic Media Association highlights its literary and spiritual impact. Readers will find a carefully crafted story that examines resistance, suffering, and the search for meaning. Koch's work stands as both a gripping historical account and a meditation on enduring human dignity.
