Born in Komiža on the island of Vis (then a part of Austria-Hungary), Marinković's childhood was marked by World War I.

When his native island was occupied by Fascist Italy, he was arrested in Split and interned in the Ferramonti camp.

[1][2] After the capitulation of Italy, Marinković went to Bari,[2] and then to the El Shatt refugee camp where he made contacts with Tito's Partisans.

[2] His best known works are Glorija (1955), a play in which he criticised the Catholic Church, and Kiklop (1965), a semi-autobiographical novel in which he described the gloomy atmosphere among Zagreb intellectuals before the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia.

[3] In the last years of his life Marinković embraced the political views of Franjo Tuđman, and became a member of the Croatian Democratic Union.