She is a global icon, the ultimate diva, the Brooklyn girl made good, the ugly duckling who blossomed into a modern-day Nefertiti, the Oscar-winning actress and bona fide movie mogul, and arguably the greatest female singer who has ever lived. Equally adored and despised, she is one of the world’s most recognized celebrities—those slightly crossed eyes, that nose . . . the voice. Yet even to the multitudes who idolize her, Streisand has remained aloof, unknowable, tantalizingly beyond reach . . . until now.

Drawing from in-depth interviews with eyewitnesses to her remarkable life and career, number-one New York Times bestselling author Christopher Andersen paints a fascinating, startling portrait of Barbra Joan Streisand—the artist, the woman, a true American original.