Tash Aw’s estimable third novel, “Five Star Billionaire,” takes its title from a fictional self-help book, and its mantras function as chapter titles: “Move to where the money is”; “Reinvent yourself”; “Cultivate an urbane, humorous personality.” Some of these mantras are touching, like “Know when to cut your losses.”

The novel’s setting is Shanghai, circa right now. Mr. Aw’s five central characters are mostly insecure strivers from the outlands. They’re trying to shake their hick accents, their poor postures and their cheap shoes and to make it, by any means necessary, in the big sleek city.

One of these characters, an amoral spa receptionist named Phoebe, shows up for a date at a sophisticated Western restaurant after making a list of things to remember. These include “how to use the cutlery, what to do with the little baskets of bread that arrived before the meal, how to deal with olives.” Soon, Phoebe “did not even need to look in her handbag for the piece of paper on which she had written: 1. Soup (+ bread). 2. Fish (flat knife). 3. Meat. 4. Cheese. 5. Dessert. 6. Coffee.”

Mr. Aw has an eye for status distinctions. There is some Edith Wharton, as well as some Tom Wolfe, in how he invests awareness of these distinctions with moral and financial peril. “Five Star Billionaire” was recently placed on the long list for the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s top literary award, and one of its pleasures is purely sociological. It’s a busy yet sophisticated portrait of life in one of the most populous cities on earth.