MacKenzie Scott’s novel has drawn a mixed and often perplexed response after she released it chapter by chapter on Substack, bypassing a traditional publisher and major booksellers including Amazon.
Last Days in Two Nations (A History in Eighteen Minds) was published in instalments from 8 August, with the final chapter arriving on 31 August. The approximately 80,000-word, 317-page work was made available free to subscribers.
The book has attracted particular attention because Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has given away more than $26 billion through philanthropy while rarely speaking publicly. Some readers have searched the novel for clues about her views and private thoughts.
Instead, critics have frequently focused on its uncertainty. Eve Sneider, a writer and editor, described the ending in a Business Insider review as “a baffling conclusion fit for a baffling project”, arguing that it left readers with more questions than answers. The New York Post called the novel “hard to untangle”.
Set in a near-future America divided between the “Still United” states and an authoritarian breakaway regime called the Dakota Membership, the story is told through 18 viewpoints. The breakaway territory is ruled by a president named Damian Paxton.
The format has also been criticised. Sneider objected to the downloadable PDFs, which were presented like a manuscript in progress, and pointed to double-spacing and typos that contributed to an impression of an unfinished work.
Critics debate the novel’s deliberate ambiguity
Morissa Schwartz, founder of GenZ Publishing and a doctorate-holder in literature, said the uncertainty appeared intentional in the prologue and epilogue, the sections she assessed.
“Ambiguity appears purposeful in the framing sections,” Schwartz said. “But deliberate ambiguity still has to earn its keep. A reader can accept uncertainty about what an event means while needing clarity about who is speaking, when, and what is at stake. Those are different kinds of confusion.”
Schwartz also cautioned against treating the book as a roman à clef, in which real people appear in disguised form, about Scott’s former husband or anyone else. “Hunting for a real-world counterpart can become a distraction if it turns every character into a clue and leaves their psychological contradictions unread,” she said.
Other coverage has compared figures in the novel with Bezos and the second Trump administration, rather than concentrating solely on its literary qualities.
The reaction marks another uneven reception for Scott’s fiction. Her debut, The Testing of Luther Albright, won an American Book Award, while her second novel, Traps, was received more coolly. Her earlier books were released through traditional publishers.
Scott trained under Toni Morrison and said in a 2013 interview: “I tend to be interested in complex problems more than simple ones. I like to work on long projects. I like to endlessly analyze conversations and think about words and tinker with words.”
A Substack spokesperson said the platform had no advance notice that Scott was going to publish the novel there. “We want to give people the tools and flexibility to publish on their own terms, without needing an invitation or permission from us,” the spokesperson said.
Scott holds roughly a 4% stake in Amazon, received as part of her 2019 divorce from Bezos. She almost never responds to press inquiries about either her writing or philanthropic work, and the novel remains free to read on Substack.
