. >> brown: and we close with author louise erdrich on the crafting of her new novel, dealing with life-altering violence for one native american family. to talk to me. and i knew once i had written into this, when i got to the words, where is your mother, i knew that this was the book. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: an important snapshot of the country's economic growth was released today, a week and a half before the election. with positive, but still slow, improvement, the white house and the romney campaign offered different assessments. a late boost in consumer

. >> brown: and we close with author louise erdrich on the crafting of her new novel, dealing with life-altering violence for one native american family. to talk to me. and i knew once i had written into this, when i got to the words, where is

it's very complicated. >> brown: all right, the new book is "the round house", louise erdrich, thanksof. >> pleasure. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: the latest snapshot of the u.s. economy showed positive growth, hurricane sandy left at least 40 people dead across the caribbean as it tracked toward the east coast of the u.s. and a suicide bomb outside a mosque in northern afghanistan killed 41 people. who better to ask about inefficiencies in the u.s. health care system than the patients it serves, you? hari sreenivasan explains. >> sreenivasan: we asked for your first-hand accounts of the ways you've experienced wasteful practic ican medil care. find those stories, plus all our healthcare reporting this week on our health page. gwen ifill counts down to election day with someme interesting campaign numbers, like how many people have already voted. that's gwen's take. find the latest satellite image of hurricane sandy as it whirls up the east coast, plus a slide show of images from the storm so far. on tonight's "need to know", rick karr examines the controvers