Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg News

Displeased with his depiction in “The Big Short,” Michael Lewis’s best-selling book about the mortgage crisis, a New Jersey asset manager is suing the author, the publisher and one of the main figures in the book.

Wing Chau, founder of Harding Asset Management, contends that Mr. Lewis made “false and defamatory statements” about him and his role in the crash by painting him as a “villain” in the narrative, according to the complaint filed in United States District Court in Manhattan.

The lawsuit also names Steven Eisman, a colorful hedge fund manager featured prominently in the book who bet against the subprime mortgage market, and the book’s publisher, W.W. Norton and Company.

Mr. Lewis’s nonfiction book spent weeks atop The New York Times best-seller list for both its hardcover and paperback editions, and its “popularity has made the harm to the plaintiffs all the more severe,” the suit says.

Mr. Chau and his firm make their appearance in a dinner scene in Las Vegas, where Mr. Eisman is in attendance.

The book describes a conversation the two men are said to have had about a segment of the subprime mortgage market that Mr. Chau was involved with and Mr. Eisman was betting against.

“In the same breathless tone that permeates the rest of the book, this chapter makes a series of accusations of grave professional misconduct, incompetence, and irresponsibility,” the suit states.

In particular, Mr. Chau takes issue with the following descriptions of his work as a manager of collateralized debt obligations, which the book describes as a mechanism to “launder a lot of subprime mortgage market risk that the firms had been unable to place straightforwardly.”

“The C.D.O. manager, in practice, didn’t do much of anything, which is why all sorts of unlikely people suddenly hoped to become one,” according to the passage in the book the lawsuit cites.

The lawsuit also contends that conversations captured in the book between Mr. Eisman and Mr. Chau were highly inaccurate.

“The entire passage depicts Mr. Chau as someone who ignored his professional responsibilities, made misrepresentations to investors, charged money for work that was not performed, had no stake in the C.D.O.s he managed, was incompetent or reckless in carrying out his responsibilities, and violated his fiduciary duties by putting the interests of ‘Wall Street bond trading desks’ above those of his investors,” the suit says.

The suit notes that Mr. Chau declined a request for an interview from Mr. Lewis.

Mr. Eisman declined to comment on the lawsuit

Calls to the publisher were not immediately returned.

Complaint Against Michael Lewis