“Funny, I don't feel like a legend.”
-— Barbra Streisand

She is a one-name legend, a global icon, the ultimate diva. Yet most of what we know about Barbra Joan Streisand is the stuff of caricature: the Brooklyn girl made good, the ugly duckling who blossomed into a modern-day Nefertiti, the political dilettante driving to the barricades in her Rolls-Royce, the Oscar-winning actress and bona fide movie mogul, the greatest female singer who ever lived, a skinflint, a philanthropist, a connoisseur and a barbarian, the woman whose physical characteristics are instantly identifiable around the planet — the tapered nails, those slightly crossed eyes, that nose, the voice.

Even to the multitudes around the world who idolize her, Streisand remains aloof, unknowable, tantalizingly beyond reach. Until now. In the manner of his #l New York Times bestsellers The Day Diana Died and The Day John Died as well as Jack and Jackie, Jackie After Jack, An Affair to Remember, and Sweet Caroline, Christopher Andersen taps into important sources — eyewitnesses to Streisand's remarkable life and career — to paint a startling portrait of the artist . . . and the woman. Among the revelations:

Surprising new details about her wedding and marriage to James Brolin.

New information about her many failed love affairs, including her never-before-revealed relationships with Prince Charles and Princess Diana's doomed lover Dodi Fayed — as well as Warren Beatty, Ryan O'Neal, former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Steve McQueen, Richard Gere, Kris Kristofferson, Don Johnson, Jon Voight, Andre Agassi, newsman Peter Jennings, and more . . .

A provocative inside account of what really went on between Streisand and Bill Clinton in the White House, what their relationship is like today, and how Hillary feels about Barbra.

From Funny Girl and The Way We Were to Yentl and The Prince of Tides — and in the recording sessions that produced some of the biggest hits in music history — new behind-the-scenes details of the brilliance, the obsessive drive for perfection, and the Callas-sized ego.

New insights into Barbra's relationship with her only child, Jason.

Whether you love her, hate her, or are simply spellbound by her titanic talent, Barbra is one thing above all others: a true American original.