MacKenzie Scott’s first novel in 13 years is being called ‘baffling’—and critics are left asking what message she’s trying to send

MacKenzie Scott isn’t like many billionaire philanthropists. She’s given away more than $26 billion while saying almost nothing in public. So when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife finished publishing her first novel in 13 years last month, readers combed it for clues and insights into her inner thoughts. 

But what several of them found instead was confusion.

Writer and editor Eve Sneider, for one, called the book’s ending “a baffling conclusion fit for a baffling project” in her Business Insider review, and said readers come away with more questions than answers about what Scott wanted to say. The New York Post called it “hard to untangle.”

Scott released the novel chapter by chapter on Substack beginning Aug. 8. By publishing Last Days in Two Nations (A History in Eighteen Minds) that way, she bypassed a publishing house and any major bookseller—including Amazon, where she holds roughly a 4% stake from her 2019 divorce. The roughly 80,000-word, 317-page book was free to anyone who subscribed, and the final installment dropped Aug. 31.

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