Among his best known works are the novella Životopis Malvine Trifković, the novels Vrata od utrobe, Grad u zrcalu, the short story collection Ruže za Nives Koen, the book of essays Europska trulež and the scripts for some of the most successful films of Yugoslav cinema like Handcuffs, Playing Soldiers and Occupation in 26 Pictures among others.
Kovač was born to a Croat father and a Serb mother[2] in the village of Petrovići in Banjani region near Nikšić, Montenegro.
He went on to study the works of other notable Croatian authors like Ranko Marinković, Vladan Desnica, Antun Branko Šimić and Vjekoslav Kaleb.
After finishing school he published his first essay called Tri pesnika (Three Poets) about the works of Tin Ujević, Branko Miljković and Oskar Davičo.
The communist authorities declared the book inappropriate because of its dark portrayal of life and started a campaign against Kovač which resulted in a year long polemic.