Christopher Nolan’s film “The Odyssey” is sending Korean readers back to Homer, driving a sharp surge in sales of the ancient epic and related titles ahead of the movie’s local release on Wednesday. According to Kyobo Book Centre, sales of books with “Odyssey” in their titles — including various Korean spellings of the classic — have climbed steeply this year as the film’s opening approaches. Compared with the same months a year earlier, sales were up 52.9 percent in March, 87.5 percent in April, 194 percent in May and 291.7 percent in June. In July, they jumped 595.5 percent year-on-year, nearly sevenfold, signaling that anticipation for the film is spurring renewed interest in Homer’s classic. The best-selling title in Kyobo so far this year is “The Odyssey,” a complete Korean translation of the original Greek published by Hyundae Jisung. The bookstore noted that sales have been “evenly distributed” across full translations and introductory guides to the text, suggesting that the boom is not limited to seasoned classics readers but is drawing newcomers as we