Drawing on the theoretical input provided by the Surveillance Studies, this study aims to contribute to a re-reading of the novel The Cave [A Caverna] by José Saramago, based on the analysis of the representation of surveillance in the text. This article focuses on the most relevant surveillance contexts in the novel as well as on the spatial configuration of the “Centre”, an allegorical space of key importance in the narrative in which surveillance plays a crucial role and where one can identify various features of our globalised society, such as the fading border between public and private space and the reorganisation of the city in order to promote consumerism. This analysis not only explores the representation of the “watchers” and the “watched”, but it also highlights the way in which subtle surveillance practices are disclosed and questioned in the context of the novel’s critical perspetive of our contemporary capitalist society.